Transport economics

Bosnia and Herzegovina will hike the retail price of fuel as of February 1, the first increase of this year.

A new Excise Law, adopted in mid-December, after almost a year of the negotiations, long debates in parliament and amid resistance from opposition parties, came into force at the beginning of January.

Vignette stickers for 2018 are on sale today. For the first time, the annual sticker will be valid from the date of purchase.

Another innovation for vignettes, which will be valid for three months - its price is 54 BGN. The prices of the other vignettes remain unchanged.

Yearly for cars it costs BGN 97, BGN 30 is monthly and BGN 15 - weekly.

Nearly a 3% increase in gas prices for the domestic market as of January 1, 2018, offers the state gas supplier Bulgargaz of the Commission for Energy and Water Regulation. The current prices are BGN 343.36 per 1000 cubic meters or BGN 32.27 per MWh. Tariffs are two - for quantity and energy, because of the requirements of the European Commission.

An increase of 4.85% in the price of gas for the first quarter of next year is envisaged by the public provider Bulgargaz, the company said.
The estimated gas price for this period is 359.87 BGN / hm3 (excluding access, transit, excise and VAT) - an increase of 16.65 BGN / hm3 or 4.85% (an increase of 1.56 BGN ./MWh or 4.84%) compared to the price for the fourth quarter of 2017.

High gasoline prices continue to burn a hole in Turkish citizens’ wallets, with a 13 kuruş price hike set to go into effect early on Nov. 9, the third rise in the last 15 days. 

From yesterday, owners of older, dirtier cars will be charged an extra £10 if they want to drive into London. The Mayor, Saddiq Khan, announced the "Toxicity charge" in February as part of a package of measures to clean up the capital's "filthy air".

Since the end of September, gasoline sales have been banned at North Korean commercial petrol stations. Exceptions are set for senior officials of the Korean Workers' Party, the government, the armed forces and the special services, the Japanese newspaper Asahi writes, quoted by TASS.

Britain will ban the sale of new petrol and diesel-powered cars from 2040 as part of a plan to get them off the roads altogether 10 years later, environment minister Michael Gove said on July 26.

''There has been a steady downward trend in the world oil prices over the past month, but it still can not affect the price of gas in Bulgaria and get it lowered'', the chair of the Energy and Water Regulaory Commission Ivan Ivanov said on 27th of June after an open meeting of the regulator which discussed the increase in the price of natural gas by nearly 2% as of 1st of July, BNT reported. 

''Electronic vignettes will replace current paper stickers for light vehicles. There will be options for one-day and weekend vignettes, while prices won't exceed the current ones'', Regional Development Minister Nikolay Nankov told Bulgarian National Television's (BNT) quoted by the ministry's press office.